Page 8 - Issue 9
P. 8
The history of law
Upper Nile, Unity versus Warrap, Lakes
and Central Equatoria. The fighting in enforcement in the U.S. was
Jonglei is a politico-community war. It
involves Morlei, Nuer Low and Dinka. interwoven with slavery
The war expected to erupt in Upper
Nile, would be among the Nuer, Dinka By Heather Mac Donald and segregation
and shilluk.
The question I ask is: The war going
on in central Equatoria is said to be a
liberation war, against who? It is not yet
clear, but gossip points an accusing finger
on politicians and warlords. These wars
are not small; they can seriously divide
the communities, states and regions
or could derail the ongoing revitalized
national peace.
Let’s accept the fact that our country is
at the climax of national paralysis, and
dispersal in all fields of livelihoods.
All of us must unite; avoid social and
political anarchy for national dialogue, George Floyd was killed after an officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota
knelt on his neck for at Least nine minutes. (Picture: Facebook)
reconciliation and forgiveness.
t is understandable and appropriate,
In my opinion, the problems facing Iwhen viewing the horrific arrest and Washington Post’s data base of fatal
the country now are comprehensively death of George Floyd, to ask whether police shootings showed nine unarmed
identified by many South Sudanese we are seeing the tip of the iceberg black victims and 19 unarmed white
intellectuals’ forums, such as the when it comes to policing and the brutal victims of fatal police shootings in 2019.
National Dialogue forum, Ebony centre- indifference to human life. The history That number of black unarmed victims
Think Tank, Sudd Research institution; of law enforcement in the U.S. was is down 76% from 2015, when the Post
professionals schools of know-how, interwoven with slavery and segregation. began keeping its data base.
universities and other centers in Africa The memory of policing complicity with The point here is not to justify any of
and elsewhere in the world. racial oppression cannot be easily erased. these deaths, it is to rebut the claim
Available are South Sudanese writers To move from the stomach-churning that questionable tactics occur only in
the case of black suspects. Indeed, it is
like Francis Mading Deng, Jacob Jiel specificity of Mr. Floyd’s case to broader premature to conclude that the Floyd
Akol, Bona Malual, Dr. Lual A Deng, numbers is jarring. Nevertheless, if brutality was a product of racial animus
and many more. And further, refer the charge against policing is systemic at all, as opposed to poor training and an
to historical records for political racism, we need to look at the system as unfit temperament.
philosopher, Dr. John Garang’s on unity a whole. No police critic has ever suggested a
of Sudanese Africans, Arabs, Muslims Blacks between the ages of ten and 43 die benchmark for evaluating the number
and Christians. History of decolonized of homicide at thirteen times the rate of of officer use of force incidents. Ideally,
and post independence developments whites, according to the CDC. In New officers would take no one’s life in the
infrastructures are available. York City, blacks make up 73% of all course of their duties. But in light of
These groups and individuals are not shooting victims, though they are 23% the number of arrests that officers make
being consulted on issues that touch of the city’s population. In Chicago in each year--around 11 million–and the
on their profession and experiences to 2016, there were 4300 shooting victims, number of deadly weapons attacks on
success or failure and why? There is no almost all black. officers—27 a day in just two-thirds of
country anywhere in the world that does Are the police nevertheless engaging the nation’s police departments--it is
not consult or refer problems for expert in an epidemic of racist violence, as we not clear that 1000 civilian deaths, the
opinion or advice, particularly when the hear daily? They are not. For the last five vast majority occurring in the face of
country is still under establishment and years, the police have killed about 1000 a potentially deadly attack, show a law
eventual nation building. civilians a year, the vast majority of those enforcement profession that is out of
victims armed or otherwise dangerous. control.
The politicians need to involve South In 2019, the police killed 235 blacks, -Redacted
Sudanese civil society, women, youth, most of them also armed or dangerous,
intellectuals and the church, in order to out of 1004 police shooting victims - Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W.
Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute,
succeed in their endeavor to implement overall. contributing editor at City Journal, and
the R. ARCSS successfully. Otherwise What about unarmed victims of fatal the author of the bestselling The on Cops
implementation process shall fail. police shootings? As of June 1, the and The Diversity Delusion.
8 | The Nile Explorer 009